Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Tadeusz Kosciuszko (4 February 1746-15 October 1817) was a general and military engineer in the service of both Poland-Lithuania and the United States. Kosciuszko left Poland for France in 1769 to pursue his studies after his brother squandered his family's fortunes, preventing him from having a military career; however, in 1776 he left for the United States and rose to the rank of Brigadier-General during the American Revolutionary War, in which he fought with the Continental Army as the commander of its engineers. Kosciuszko returned to Poland after the war's end in 1783, and he served as a brilliant general during the War of the Second Partition in 1792, during which he was undefeated. In 1794, he led the Kosciuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire to establish an independent Polish state built on American ideals, but the defeat of his revolt led to him once more going into exile in France. Kosciuszko lobbied for the creation of a democratic Polish government in both the First French Empire and the Russian Empire, and he donated his estate's money to the abolitionist cause in America; both of these causes would fail, with slavery not being abolished until 45 years later. Biography Early life Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born on 4 February 1746 in Mereczowszczyzna, Poland-Lithuania (now Merechevschina, Belarus) to an aristocratic military family of Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Ruthenian descent. Kosciuszko enlisted in the Corps of Cadets in 1765, but his brother squandered his family's money, and he was unable to be commissioned as an officer in the army during the War of the Bar Confederation. In 1775, he was forced to flee to France after having an affair with the daughter of a magistrate, and Kosciuszko was influenced by Enlightenment ideals such as physiocracy and abolitionism. American Revolutionary War Kosciuszko came to the United States in June 1776 with other foreign officers to enlist in the Continental Army suring the American Revolutionary War, and the Continental Congress appointed him as a Colonel of the engineers of the Continental Army. Kosciuszko recommended that Arthur St. Clair build an artillery battery on Mount Defiance next to Fort Ticonderoga to bolster its defenses, but St. Clair refused, leading to the fort's fall to the British in 1777; in 1779, Kosciuszko oversaw the construction of fortification at West Point. In 1780, he helped Nathanael Greene and his troops in escaping from Charles Cornwallis' army at the Dan River in South Carolina; he fought at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill alongside Greene and harassed British foraging parties near Charleston after the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781. Kosciuszko led Continentals at the final armed encounter of the Continental Army at James Island, South Carolina on 14 November 1782, where his small force was routed and he was wounded. A month later, he entered Charleston when the British evacuated the city, and in May 1783 he collected the salary owed to him, although he did not receive his back pay. Polish general On 15 July 1784, Kosciuszko returned to Poland, but a dispute between the ruling families led to him again being unable to have a commission in the army. In 1790, Prince Jozef Poniatowski made him his second-in-command after realizing his skills, and he argued that peasants and Jews should be given full citizenship. On 18 May 1792, when 100,000 Russian troops entered Poland at the start of the War of the Second Partition, Kosciuszko was given command of a division. Poniatowski refused to heed Kosciuszko's advice to unite all of the Polish armies to have superior numbers, and Kosciuszko was forced to fight against larger Russian forces in many battles in Ukraine. Kosciuszko fought successful battles, such as the battle of Dubienka, and he was granted the Virtuti Militari award for being one of Poland's most brilliant commanders of the time. He did not lose a single battle, but King Stanislaw II of Poland was eventually forced to capitulate to the Russians, leading to Kosciuszko becoming a leader of the independence movement. After he refused a commission in the Austrian Empire's army, the Austrians ordered his deportation, and in 1794 he decided to launch a rebellion against the Russians to create an independent Polish state. The Kosciuszko Uprising broke out, and the Poles fought against the Russian government's forces in a spirited uprising, but his revolt was put down at the Battle of Praga, which was followed by a massacre of Poles by the Russians. Return to France Kosciuszko went into exile in France after his rebellion was crushed, and he came to the country at the time of the French Revolution. On 28 November 1796, after Catherine the Great's death, Paul I of Russia pardoned Kosciuszko and freed all Poles forcibly settled in Siberia and held in prisoner-of-war camps due to his hatred of Catherine. In 1797, Kosciuszko entrusted his estate to Thomas Jefferson to be put towards the abolitionist cause, and he intended to support Jan Henryk Dabrowski and the Polish Legions of the French Army in fighting for Polish freedom. However, by 1798 he had been marginalized, and in 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte regarded him as a fool who overestimated his influence in Poland, leading to Kosciuszko retiring from politics. Kosciuszko believed that Napoleon's greation of the Duchy of Warsaw was only an expedient and that he did not sympathize with the Polish cause; Kosciuszko was upset when Czar Aleksandr I of Russia's new Congress Poland vassal was smaller than Warsaw. Kosciuszko went into exile in Switzerland, dying there in 1817. Category:1746 births Category:1817 deaths Category:Polish generals Category:American generals Category:Generals Category:Polish Category:Americans Category:Polish-Americans Category:Lithuanians Category:Belarusians Category:Ukrainians Category:Lithuanian-Americans Category:Ukrainian-Americans Category:Belarusian-Americans Category:Catholics Category:Polish liberals Category:Liberals Category:Polish emigrants to France Category:Polish emigrants to America Category:Abolitionists